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2024-10-29 19:42:56
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OUTCAST 41
Vastu News was reporting from a drone from Al-Aranb, a city on the central highway of the Choban Valley, where nomads had broken into in the morning. Several houses were on fire, robbery was going on in the city, residents fled in different directions. Black smoke billowed from the mall, and dust swirled through the streets, kicked up by a swarm of jeeps. The broadcast was silent, but social networks were full of videos taken by participants in the events. In horror, residents posted how SUVs with machine guns were moving through the streets. Bearded haired men drove in jeeps directly into adobe huts, which one they liked, and broke into cabinets, climbed into basements, grabbed computers, household appliances, took them out and put them in trunks. Behind them, trucks with women and children drove into the streets, who ran home, raking out everything else - dishes, food, clothes, toys. They scoured the cellars and roofs in search of residents who did not have time to escape - they had
OUTCAST 42
I looked into the forward view camera. Unlike the simulation program in the "windows", there was real space here, this is how it looked like where I was flying. Gray ripples, not disturbed by anything. No objects, nothing but gray flickering gloom. Only in the lower right corner of this void is a running stream of numbers - the distance traveled, speed, coordinates, course parameters.The ripples were not in the cell, but in my eyes. There was a lump in the throat, nausea, all the time disturbing with the urge to vomit. His forehead hurt, heartbeats were hard to feel in all veins. I just started to come to my senses, at least I began to roughly understand where I am, what day it is ... I flew away from Belolessia, consider it automatically. Set a course to the side "to hell away." Well, at least all the batteries were charged before "everything".The shower did not help, it immediately felt sick there. Sleep didn't help. Instead of sleep, I fell into a resounding failure and only saw
OUTCAST 43
The co-chairman of the Intergalactic Commission on State Building and Law, Gilats, who agreed to an exclusive interview in his hotel room, is simply incredible luck for Wagner and his team. Beginners are lucky, although colleagues in the workshop, looking enviously after them, were sure that this was due to “some kind of secret smear”. Precisely, no one “punched” this contact for the guys, it was really lucky. Toli Lilit somehow very gracefully threw her legs over her legs, sitting in an armchair in the first row of the commission's meeting room. Toli Gilats saw their reports from the Choban Valley (I must say, they thundered and were noted as very successful. The filmmakers were noticed and respected). Tolya liked Wagner's hilarious question at the press conference... In short, suddenly, caught in the corridor, Gilats told my filmmakers to come to him in the evening with a camera, to work.In the room, while the four were fiddling with cameras, sound, background and light, Wagner beg
OUTCAST 44
Hot in the back seat of the gelika with tinted windows comfortably stretched out his long legs and looked out the window as the car drove out of the sanatorium, where in the gym now his 12 fighters were sleeping sweetly in anticipation of morning coffee and buns. They were here under the guise of a team of workers - plasterers and painters, and he was like their foreman, who went to the city for paint and other things.Five days ago, a "legitimate" drug lord received him sincerely at Wolf's Beach. We spent the night with cognac and shish kebab on the shore of a quiet moon pond, listening to night birds and frogs, having a swim in cool water, having a chat for life. We also talked about mournful matters, and the baron gave a normal contact. They crossed the border along the path of drug couriers and surrendered to the local border guards in the Valley of Thunder, who brought them to this sanatorium. For three days we slept and ate in the gym without going out into the street. Finally,
OUTCAST 45
After all the troubles in Marchand, I still didn’t even want to play any shooting games or strategies. I flipped through the new toys and closed the app. Yes, and with all these thoughts about reality and virtuality, I wanted to deal with something material. Saved my ship. Nothing was broken, but I got into the service compartments - wipe the nodes with oil, tighten the screws, check the voltage and temperatures.Still, it was real iron, without any holograms there. It was hard or flexible, hot or cold, it responded with a tinkle or a hum to my touch, I felt my aggregates and wires with my hands. Even if it comes to that, and I myself am all virtual, then my spaceship is real. He has mass, speed, coordinates. He has an age - the date of manufacture and the registration certificate is genuine, and not glued together by hackers or rogues from the village ovir. So, if doubts about the reality of my existence crept in, then he has a real body ...He has not only a body, but also a mind -
OUTCAST 46
General Johnson Wallace was scolded by Maat. She dressed in a uniform-like suit with a tight, short skirt and a tight-fitting jacket. Playing with her calf muscles, standing up on her toes, she looked at the window of the bar on the floor of the hotel, where the general-co-chairman of the Military Intergalactic Commission spent the night. Then she sat down at the table next to him and, finally, hooked. The military liked the energetic, physically strong and sexy famous journalist - Wallace agreed to an hour or two of conversation on camera that evening.Maat played an enthusiastic girl currying favor with an influential military leader, smiled, and then told how horrified she was from everything she saw in the Choban Valley.- I am sure that if your dream came true, and our army would try to defend Choban, repel the invasion, you would be even more horrified. We can't shoot an entire nation, with children and old people. You know, my experience, and everything I've learned, is that we
OUTCAST 47
Hoth decided not to leave the image of a specialist builder for the time being, in the same outfit, with the same legend, he found transport in Largange to V Zera, to Man. As a normal tight-fisted hard worker, he was looking for something cheaper and found a cool option for 20 gold with an average flight price of 30. Some small office with a couple of dozen medium-sized boards drove this route once a month and the next flight was just two days later.The vessel was carrying 100 tons of cargo on two luggage decks and a hundred passengers on the "human" one. 20 gold is a minimum of amenities and a two-time ration of tubes. With Hoth's current budget, that was fine with him. After takeoff, feeling weightless, the experienced Jedi strapped himself to a sunbed in the cockpit for twenty of the same unpretentious couchettes, and prepared to endure a month. In flight, it was forbidden to use the Internet, Hoth flew to the library, where they gave out discs with movie recordings - watch them i
OUTCAST 48
Jackie, editor-in-chief of InterMedia, a huge intergalactic news holding, was mildly interested in Skype:- Are you completely opposed to your guys joining me on staff?- Yes, these are not "my" guys, they are on their own. Just talented and promising, do not want to have them spoiled there. Your editors are like asphalt rollers, they level everyone so that they don’t stick out ..."Filmmakers" thundered, that is necessary. Reporting from the Choban Valley and exclusive interviews from the intergalactic sessions broke records in views and citations. They were now known and wanted everywhere, it is a pity that the glory fell not on their real names, but on nicknames. Now it is necessary, perhaps, to live under these names. Before them opened an excellent road to start in journalism. I didn't even know if I had the right to prevent it. My personal sour journalistic experience is one thing, it is bitter for me. But should it be imposed on their lives? All of a sudden things will be diffe
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Epilogue
We were again alone on the same sidewalk of a narrow street in a seaside town. Indistinct music was heard from the cafes along the coast, and there was a wall of cypresses and tall yellow grass all around. We ended up at that point and second at which we parted many, many lives ago, in that August, when the local sea is the hottest, and the nights are warm, like fresh milk, and the smell of flowers is dense, like a wall.It was us, but not us. She had visibly matured, it was no longer the same young girl with electric sparks in her black eyes. Wrinkles, bitterness and memories of many years and destinies were written on her face. I, too, felt like an old doll taken out of the closet, faded and dusty.- I love you, I've been looking for you all these years, I could not calm down, I've been looking for you century after century - in all galaxies. I can't live without you, I traded everything for this moment to bring you back. I can't be happy without you, let me come back to you.I spok
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85
“The diamond coffin that Seth lured Osiris into was cheaper than this box,” Daniel Fogg touched the luminous blue case of the medical capsule and freezer in one bottle with his finger.- Do you feel sorry for the money? Powell asked, solemn as before a prayer, in a strict black suit, with a neatly trimmed gray beard, standing at the control panel of this wonderful machine, a unique apparatus, his brainchild.- Too big risks. It has never been tested on humans, and immediately on such a patient. And the donor is doubtful.- She was checked from all sides, she fits exactly.- I'm not talking about medical indications. Psychologically, you may not be ready. The fact that she went through an initiation through Death does not mean that she will go through Love as well. Without verification, it is dangerous to immediately put into action.- Wagner passed, and they are from the same test.- OK let's see. Such stakes, and it all depends on one girl.- She loves him. Here, she’s already coming
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84
Turntables, ripping up the blue summer sky with smoky jets of NURSs, plowed a section of the track in an open area near the edge. Having gained a little height, they went to the circle, so that in a minute they would return and hit again. Ratmir with officers and guards in three jeeps noticed two black circles approaching from behind the clouds in time, turned off the asphalt into the forest, hiding under the crowns of trees. This saved them from the first blow. But the pilots of the Antean pair of fire support helicopters had already seen these three machines and bit the bit, imbued with hunting excitement. Their rumble over the forest began to grow again, now they will beat at random, covering the green sea under them, they will feel below with thermal imagers and metal detectors, look out with their eyes, reflections of the painted sides of the car or, maybe, dust from under the wheels. Abandoning the cars, the Ramirs scattered and a loose flock of saigas ran deep into the thicket,
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83
He sat smiling in his chair, looking around the cleanly tidied white with a matte tint interior of his ship, silvery walls, plasma with elegant Polina (he came up with a new outfit for her, having downloaded it from a fashion site). She said with her pleasant timbre that the flight was proceeding normally, five more days to the destination. For two weeks of the flight, I was in high spirits. It turned out that in such a state it was even more difficult to endure the flight and forced inaction in a confined space without communication with the outside world than if you were flying in melancholy and sadness.Sanya played chess as best he could, but this, of course, could not distract from worries about a future trip through time and, possibly, a meeting with Chernaya. Changing musical tracks, I turned in my hands a carved medieval golden key on a leather cord, looked at cast patterns on it and intricate hieroglyphs. I remembered day after day, evening after evening, moment after moment,
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82
Volos and Lilith rarely slept together that month. Although we finally managed to rent a normal, or rather, luxurious apartment in the City of Manowaha, everyone had too much work, traveling, and very rarely crossed paths for an hour or two. Today they decided to give themselves a holiday, postponing this Saturday evening all business until Monday morning, warning everyone they can not to be pulled even in the event of the Third Coming.They dined on a balcony overlooking the huge diamond of Manowach sparkling with fire, the black night sky, the leaden ocean behind the purple colors of the embankments, the moths of airplanes in the sky and ships in the ocean, enjoying the comfort of a home furnished in the latest fashion. Lilith was in seventh heaven from everything that happened to her during this month. After a poor childhood and student life, after space flights on cheap transport vehicles, after tents in Choban, medical wards in Alam and the stone jungle of Oralon... She found her
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81
Maat was flying in a glass-case-like mini-metro that connected the Bahdi spaceport to the Belau lake and oasis, located in an uncontaminated area. A hundred kilometers, sparkling like a bunch of candies in gold pieces, the train rushed by in 40 minutes, allowing soldiers, officers and civilian personnel of the base of intergalactic peacekeepers to leave the garrison in the evening or on weekends and relax near the water in the shade of palm trees, without protective equipment. Three new hotel buildings, restaurants, sports and massage parlors - everything was built to the glory, as in the best resorts in the universe.In the month and a half that the military settled here, the Bahdi Cosmodrome turned into a considerable city. About 100,000 inhabitants of Parta came here after finding work or humanitarian aid. For them, several neighborhoods of temporary housing were also rapidly erected. And these were not dull rows of tents and wagons to the horizon. Everything that Wallos and his fe
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80
- Where are you stuck? - severely met my appearance from behind a closet in the old Wolverine hotel, she got bored, sitting on a shabby sofa, watching TV news about the death of the Bounty.- Dropped by Wagner, he had an exam.- Passed? Masa asked quietly, becoming more serious.- Passed. Satisfied?- Of course. I believed in him. The Love Exam is difficult, for example, you are not ready for it. Bounty, over there, was not ready either. This chocolate loved only himself. From people he needed only their boundless love for him and admiration. He does not care that for this, he had to turn people into cattle. Don't laugh - I love people. For real. I do what they will hate me for, what they will kick me out and curse me for, everything that people need to be people and grow.What makes you think they need it? There is an easy way to find out. What people are willing to pay for is what they really need. Everything that is not in demand is just a wishlist. Your games of freedom are not in
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79
Gilats looked at Thomson, and saw Wagner hanging in a noose in the bathroom, his tongue hanging out, his face blue and his eyes bulging. He recalled how they sent him a video, how they removed the guy from the rope, put him on the bed in the hotel, saying that there were no signs of violence. Sources gave him the info, how it really happened. And Gilats, looking at the powerful hands of the general, imagined how this strong man in an expensive suit dragged the frail body of the boy along the floor, as he held it, while his fighters put on a rope.Now, looking into the square face of the CEO of Galaxy Sec, the co-chairman of the State Construction Commission with an effort made an indifferent and even benevolent look:- At least you know what kind of hematogen Powell is preparing there instead of Bounty?- He calls his project "Twix". I only know software. He wants to combine fiery software shells with what is left of the New Testament and cover from above with a united circuit with co
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78
A month after the nuclear war on the Great Continent, the situation began to more or less clear up. In Bormunt, a small town on the left bank of the Ramira, which became the capital of the self-proclaimed Anarchist Republic, covering all the uninfected territories of eastern Lavender, from the Gray Mountains in the west to the Swamps in the east, from the river in the north to the sands in the south, in total - a square of 500x500 km. , the Council of Commanders gathered to discuss the situation and plans.The Republic was governed by direct Internet democracy - all residents (indigenous and refugees), about a million people, had their own profile in the Republican Network and the right to vote on any issue of governing the country, without representatives. The code of laws was adopted by such a general vote for five years, without the possibility of change during this period. The Network Moderator, civilian ministers and territorial leaders were elected for a year without the possibi
